The city lost one of the oldest animals at its national park as a 16-year-old male leopard breathed his last on Friday

The city lost one of the oldest animals at its national park as a 16-year-old male leopard breathed his last on Friday.

Ahmednagar, the leopard, had been kept in captivity at Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) for nine years now.

SGNP veterinarians said that the big cat had stopped eating for the last two days and vomited on Friday morning. His condition became critical after this and he passed away at 11am.

“As of now, we can say that the leopard died because to old age as the average lifespan of the cat is between 12 and 14 years. He lived well beyond his lifespan and started showing symptoms of illness, recently,” said Shailesh Pethe, veterinarian, SGNP, adding that pathologists from the Bombay Veterinary College will be conducting a post-mortem on Saturday morning and the results will be disclosed over the weekend.

The male leopard was trapped from Ahmednagar in 2007 with severe injuries. It was seven-years-old then.There are 15 leopards – eight female and seven male — now at SGNP’s leopard rescue centre, of which four – two male and two female – are between 14 to 16 years while Krishna, a female leopard, is the eldest at 18.